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Hitrecord.org; how to split the profits when a collaborative project becomes a cash cow In 2005 after dropping out of Columbia University, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his brother Dan started HitRecord.org as a platform from which to publish videos, artwork, and music and receive feedback. The project slowly evolved into a collaborative platform where users could combine projects, edit each others work, and join disparate skill sets to create a wide variety of finished projects. It wasn't until 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival that HitRecord.org re-established itself as an "open collaborative production company" and set up a business model whereby any profits from the website's projects were split 50/50 with all the users who had created it. Gordon-Levitt invited audience members to collectively collaborate with him in the filmmaking process; writers, musicians, editors, etc. can create, remix, and actualize each other's artwork with the goal of creating cohesive short multimedia work. The site now has over 80,000+ members and counting 1. While this is a relatively novel concept for a film production company, I argue that the concept of an open collaborative production company borrows many elements of open source coding culture as discussed by Manuel Castells in his presentation "Innovation, information technology and the culture of freedom" in the World Social Forum from 2005. Both cultures of production function in similarly collaborative ways within the emerging open source internet community. HitRecord.org offers a very workable model of profit distribution that works within Castell's open coding framework; it provides a successful alternative option to profit-driven property rights and ownership. Castell's Open Source Coding Manuel Castell discussess open source coding as a "social organization of production and as a form of technological innovation based on a new conception of property right" 2. This description could just as easily apply to the setup of HitRecord.org, where property rights are reimagined for the benefit of group collaboration. Much like open source coding, property is configured fundamentally around the right to distribute, not to exclude. Open source coding forgoes intellectual property rights by making public a software program's source code, allowing anybody with the technological knowledge to modify and improve upon the program. This new concept of intellectual property is supported by a governance system that holds together a community of producers. Castell discusses the context surrounding the development of open source including at least four major features: 1) the internet transforms the nature of the process of work, 2) open source expresses the development of new relationships between community, culture, and commercial activity, 3) open source exposes the new logic of organization of production in a knowledge intensive economic process, and 4) open source is a broad social phenomenon, not limited to the field of software, but applicable to the production and distribution of knowledge in a variety of domains 3. I examine HitRecord.org within Castell's context of open source coding within these four features; specifically, I will examine HitRegord.org's production process, community, profit distribution, and its live shows as a social phenomenon. Production Process HitRecord.org has a unique production process that borrows elements of social networking, broadcasting platforms like YouTube, and Castell's open source coding. Users must first create a profile and username; this is their identity within the HitRecord community and any socialization or collaboration with other users is through this identity. Like YouTube, users broadcast their creative work including poems, videos, artwork, or music, and other users can "like" or comment on the work as it stands. HitRecord, however, allows users to go one step further; anything on the site is made freely available to other users to modify, expand upon, or incorporate into a larger project; when joining the site, the user accepts the terms of use which state that any content is free and open to other users. A poem might be reappropriated into a video short, with other users adding music, animation, and editing. An operating committee made up of designated HitRecord.org members then selects finalized works for use in monetized productions. HitRecord.org has sole discretion in choosing the member or members of the committee and may create multiple Operating Committees or change the composition of said committees at any time 4. Profit Distribution While profit is not the proclaimed primary motivation behind HitRecord.org and compensation for any one contributing individual is not usually significant, there is a business structure to ensure profits are split based on level of involvement. The company includes users in a discussion about the profit split for each tour or series, allowing either two or four weeks for suggested changes to be considered. The company re-integrates 50% of the profits for future projects while the other 50% is split between the contributers. Profits are split into different categories and then further split into what was used for certain shows and how much profit was made. For example, for the proposed 2011 tour, the proposed split divided the production into the following categories: Video, Live Performances, Keynote Slides, Pre-Show Music, Halloween Pre-Show Music, Pre-Show Slides, and Pre-Show Animation 5. These categories are then further split into percentages which vary based on the amount of content that was screened or performed. Therefore, the theme videos screened at shows with more content - like "RE:Love" at the Fall Formal - recieved 2.5% while the theme videos screened at shows with less content - like "RE: Cinema" at TIFF - received 6.75% based on the number of productions screened or performed 6. Profit is thus something discussed and agreed upon between the members of the community and shared accordingly. Community and Live Shows Since 2010, HitRecord has been organizing and participating in a variety of live events bringing the online community together and presenting finalized projects to real-time audiences. Past events have included a Halloween Ball, a college tour, and participation in international film festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and Sundance. These shows allow collaborators to meet in person and provide profit from paying audience members. It's a unique element of the company that combines a thriving online collaborative community with a real-life community element. Much like Coleman's examination of cryptographic signatures as identity verification within Debian, meeting in person creates a "web of trust" within the community 7. Users can be certain that other users are who they claim to be. Conclusion HitRecord.org offers a unique example of how the ideas and ethics of open source coding can be applied to artistic endeavors. People willing to think outside of traditional property law can come together to create something collaboratively that is artistically superior to what they would have been able to create alone. HitRecord's profit distribution model is especially relevent to Castell's features of open source coding and is both innovative and practical. HitRecord.org is a creative indication of the future of artistic collaboration. 1 - http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/01/27/joseph-gordon-levitt-hitrecord-sundance/ 2 - Castells, Manuel 2005. 'Open source as social organization of production and as a form of technological innovation based on a new conception of property rights,' presentation at the World Social Forum 2005, http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/2623.html p. 196 3 - Castells, Manuel, 2005. 'Open source as social organization of production and as a form of technological innovation based on a new conception of property rights,' presentation at the World Social Forum 2005, http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/2623.html p. 197 4 - http://www.hitrecord.org/monetization 5 - http://www.hitrecord.org/albums/4067 6 - http://www.hitrecord.org/records/1068120 7 - Coleman, Gabriella, 2013. Coding Freedom, Princeton UP, Ch 4, Two ethical moments in Debian, p. 143 Category:Castell's Open Source Coding